Tainted Fisher defends Dotcom, and gets it wrong

by Cameron Slater on November 27, 2015 at 4:00pm

Fisher gagging on fatty German sausage again. It’s almost (b)romantic.

As Kim Dotcom waits for a judge to decide if he will be extradited to face criminal copyright charges, a former employee is walking out of jail after serving time on the FBI accusations the internet tycoon continues to deny.

Andrus Nomm had three years of anxiety over the charges resulting from the FBI operation against the filesharing business Megaupload.com. They were claims of a vast criminal copyright conspiracy operated through one of the world’s most popular websites.

Then, earlier this year, Nomm ended the waiting by cutting a deal with United States prosecutors. The result – a 366-day sentence (with an early parole), three years of supervision and a US$175 million judgment.

A database of federal prisoners has Nomm listed as due for release today.

A database eh Tainty boy? Nothing beats on-the-spot intel. Whaleoil’s reporter who visited Nomm can confirm he isn’t due for release until next month.

Whaleoil Media

Whaleoil Media

…and then Fishy goes to work trying to paint that Nomm confessed under duress…

“Torture”, even.

Nomm was isolated, facing increasingly long periods between seeing his son and unable to make money. Dotcom says he believes Nomm felt he had only one way out.

“After three years of this torture the US offered him a deal. He grew more and more depressed and just wanted to get out. One year in jail was his way out. I don’t blame him. I can understand why Andrus did it. But it doesn’t change the fact that he is innocent. Andrus made it clear in his documentary interview that he had done nothing wrong.”

Like the FBI saying it has Nomm testimony in reserve, Dotcom says there are “over two hours of interview” and the Youtube clip was just a preview.

Nomm waived an extradition hearing and caught a plane to the United States. He was taken into custody on February 5, 2015 – likely the day he arrived – and the entire plea deal was done eight days later. The move caught Dotcom and the other defendants off-guard. Dotcom’s US lawyer Ira Rothken told the Herald at the time Nomm’s arrival in the US was “unexpected”.

The deal saw Nomm plead guilty to two counts of conspiracy to commit copyright violation – the same charge Dotcom and the other five facing charges have denied. The maximum sentence on each charge was five years.

It also saw the US drop the other charges, which included the money laundering and racketeering charges. Copyright was also dropped. As part of the plea bargain, the US obtained a “money judgment” against Nomm for US$175 million, along with the court’s blessing to “collect said judgment by all available means”. The money was described as the “proceeds of the offence”.

The Romans had mercenary armies. They understood that loyalty was a direct result of a fair amount of pay. If not, your soldiers would turn around and you’d be standing there facing the Gauls with your dick in your hand or, if we are to play with the metaphor, laying in a cell on a thin mattress.

Dotcom is way too self-centered and greedy to understand this, and thinks he does no wrong. In fact, he feels genuinely and deeply offended by what he sees as deep personal betrayals.

But all this is irrelevant to Dotcom’s extradition. No matter how much Tainted “sausage” Fisher tries to paint the whole thing as a terrible mistake due to “torture”, Dotcom’s ability to stay in New Zealand will not pivot on Nomm’s confession.

– David “Tainted” Fisher, the NZ Herald (RIP)

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As much at home writing editorials as being the subject of them, Cam has won awards, including the Canon Media Award for his work on the Len Brown/Bevan Chuang story. When he’s not creating the news, he tends to be in it, with protagonists using the courts, media and social media to deliver financial as well as death threats.

They say that news is something that someone, somewhere, wants kept quiet. Cam Slater doesn’t do quiet and, as a result, he is a polarising, controversial but highly effective journalist who takes no prisoners.